Mayacamas, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon 1974

High Shoulder +; nicked label

ONE OF THE GREAT POST-WAR NAPA VALLEY LEGENDS

It had been many years since I last had the pleasure to drink a bottle of the 1974 Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon and the wine continues to cruise along beautifully and act as if time will never touch it! The bouquet is deep, ripe and complex, wafting from the glass in a marvelous blend of cassis, black cherries, a touch of pomegranate, mint, cigar smoke, dark soil tones, still a bit of youthful bell pepper and incipient notes of petroleum jelly in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and absolutely rock solid at the core, with excellent focus and grip, lovely complexity and still a bit of backend tannin perking up the very, very long, utterly complete finish. It is hard to believe, but this wine is still not completely resolved at age forty-four and still could do with another six or seven years in the cellar to allow the tannins to completely resolve! A great, great wine that is properly considered one of California’s greatest Cabernet icons. 01/2019

95 Points CellarTracker

This was, in contrast to the sterner, more structural 1970, a very heart-on-its-sleeve, easy-to-love bottle of cabernet. The fruit is opulent and plush, and there's still a good amount of fruit-driven sweetness here that is absolutely splendid. The profile is darker complexioned -- very little red fruit here, and there's an old-school Robert Parker richness here that I find just so easygoing and compelling. Very approachable and straight-up delicious, without the need to put in much thought, though that's not to say that this wine doesn't deserve thought. 5/1/2024

Consulting winemaker Craig Williams (formerly of Joseph Phelps) surprised me by bringing a bottle of the 1974 Mayacamas Cabernet to lunch recently. This is one of the best Cabernets Mayacamas ever made (along with 1970 and 1978) and one of the superstars of that great vintage. It would make my "hall of fame" list for Cabernets of that era. Showing Mayacamas in its golden years, the wine was fully mature yet fresh, intense and vibrant, with wild berry, black olive and wilted rose nuances, joining a complex earth and mineral quality.

Mayacamas Cabernets of that era were always tight and tannic, and many people wondered whether these wines, grown at the top of Mount Veeder in Napa Valley, would ever come around. Well, the 1974 has aged beautifully, and amazingly it appears to have the depth, balance and vitality to make it another 10 years or more. This bottle had been perfectly stored. 95 points, non-blind—the same score I gave it when I reviewed it for my book, California's Great Cabernets, published in 1989.

The notes in our database are from retrospective tastings of 1974 California Cabernets, including a 97-point rating (for what was then labeled Mayacamas Napa Mountain) and a later 88-point rating. Clearly the one I just had was a superior bottle. I'm not sure why Mayacamas Cabernets after 1978 never achieved the same level of quality, since they come from the same vineyard and most of the same winemaking techniques are still employed.